It's official, I am bonkers lol.
i recently bought a few sheng cakes and 3 arrived this week.
I know it sounds rather daft, but all I seem to be doing is holding them, caressing them, and smell how lovely and aromic these cakes are. Love, love the anise.smell.
(why no one ever came up with the idea of making air refreshner from sheng I have no idea )

I also received a sample from
yunnan chi tse beeng pingcha cha-CNNP 2003 (shou)
brewed in a gaiwan 110ml. Smelled like farmyard (no problem for me)
first few steeps deep red.
nothing fancy, and i am a bit disappointed.
It seems flat(?)/blant (English is not my mother tongue, sorry)
I expected fire works, but found it lacking of different taste sensations, like in sheng, and def. no plumps , I only experienced a chalky aftertaste.
tried to steep short, long, VERY long (till almost black) but stays the same?
am I doing something wrong here?

Try awaken the tea should be better for shu. Meaning you break the tea up and put in a clay or paper material container for a week.

Quick rinse the shu at least twice. Shu that have more interesting or complex taste are harder to come by. The taste of shu and sheng are different, IMHO, shouldn't be compared. (but that's just my opinion)

BTW there are people who use tea leaves as odorizer. I do that using tea I considered to be very bad tuition tea

since buying from China and/or yunnan sourching is no option for me at the mo (shipping 40USDplus per order ) i tried to find vendors here or in the UK.
found qingtea and this one on marktplaats.nl
he has shou and sheng from various factories.
shou years 2001,2002,2003 in stock
sheng yrs from 2003 >>> 2012 in stock
ships fast, and many very pleased buyers. highly recommended.

i received a sample of the CNNP, when you order sheng you get a piece of shou and the other way round.

Anyway, the shipping from YS is much lower when you choose a shipping different from EMS. When using AIR, it's like $20 for the first kilogram and gets lower and lower (2 kg are $30 or so...). That is to the Czech Republic, but the Netherlands is not that much farther...

If money was no object, then well stored 80s and early 90s lightly fermented shu--like Purple Sky 8592, Golden Needle White Lotus loose, or some of the Xiaguan xiaofa (or like that '90s CNNP Bana Tea sells). If truly no object, something from the 70s, like the Cultural Revolution Brick.

Broadly speaking, there are several different styles of shu, and you would have to say more about your preferences (or sample to know more, yourself--shu is much more likely to give you a true image of its quality in samples). Also, you probably don't want especially high quality shu for daily digestion or evening repose. I don't have the widest experience with shu, but as I've said before, the shu I look forward to drinking is the Dayi Secret Fragrance. Never fails to leave me slouched relaxed in the chair.

As with high quality sheng, getting your hands on non-overpriced and over-promoted shu can be arduous, and you might be forced to Taobao for some of them. I recommend white2tea and mandalateas for exploration in the sense that their selection is actively curated for reasonably high quality of various types of shu.

There are plenty of worthwhile shu threads, so do some searches, and you'll find tips.